United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Air and Energy Engineering
Research Laboratory
Research Triangle Park NC 27711
Research and Development
EPA/600/S8-90/060 Sept. 1990
&EPA Project Summary
A User-Friendly Data Entry
Routine for the ESP Model
M. G. Faulkner
All versions of the EPA/Southern
Research Institute (SRI) electrostatic
precipitator (ESP) nerformance
model have very exacting format
requirements for the input data sets.
SRI has written an interactive
program for EPA which greatly
simplifies the creation and
modification of ESP model data files,
thereby eliminating one of the major
sources of error in the use of the
model. This program is written for
IBM PC-compatible computers.
This Project Summary was
developed by EPA's Air and Energy
Engineering Research Laboratory,
Research Triangle Park, NC, to
announce key findings of the research
project that is fully documented in a
separate report of the same title (see
Project Report ordering information at
back).
Introduction
The computer model of electrostatic
precipitator (ESP) performance written by
Southern Research Institute (SRI) for the
EPA has undergone three revisions since
it was first introduced. All versions of
the ESP model require input data sets
which are very exacting in the amount of
data the user must furnish, the
correctness of that data, and the rigidity
of the format in which the data sets must
be written. The data are arranged in a
very compact and nearly illegible pattern.
An error in the location of a data item
may make the data unreadable for the
program, or worse, cause the model to
read the data incorrectly and predict
efficiency based on incorrect numbers.
Since the accuracy of the modeling
depends on the quality of the data, little
can be done to simplify the task of
gathering good quality data for
modeling. However, the task of putting
that data into the required format can be
made user-friendly. SRI has written a
program for IBM PC-compatible micro-
computers which allows easy data entry
and modification.
This report is a user's manual for the
data entry program. It describes each
step that the user must follow in order to
create data files successfully. A com-
plete description of the ESP model input
data is included as an appendix. Forms
for organizing data before using the data
entry program are included in another
appendix.
Features of the Program
This program has the following
features:
• The data are displayed in a set of
menu-driven data forms.
• Each data item is entered by typing the
correct number in the space provided.
Pressing an arrow moves the cursor to
another item, pressing the return key
moves the cursor to the next item, and
pressing the escape key moves to
another menu.
• Each data item is identified by
description (e.g., gas temperature). In
Printed on Recycled Paper
-------
addition, many of the data are
identified by the variable name used in
the model for reference to the input
data instructions in Appendix A.
Data may be read from existing data
files and either corrected or merged
with other data to form a new data file.
• When changing textual data, the
operator may enter data in either the
letter replacement mode or the letter
insertion mode, as in a word processor.
• The data files written by the program
are in the standard ESP model data
format and may be used by any SRI
ESP model.
• Some data items, which previously
required calculation or reference to
tabulated data, are calculated by the
program.
When the program begins, a set of
ESP data will be displayed as a guide
in selecting values of data for the
application at hand. The data are for a
hypothetical four-section ESP having 9
in. plate spacing, a plate area of 27,000
ft2 per section, and an SCA of 320
ft2/kacfm. The particle size distribution
is typical of ash created by burning
pulverized bituminous coal. The
electrical conditions were obtained
from an SRI-EPRI correlation of
operating conditions. The start-up data
file is named INITIAL.DAT. If a differ-
ent start-up data set is desired, it is
only necessary to name the file
INITIAL.DAT to make the change.
Conclusions
This report describes the operation of a
program that greatly simplifies the
creation and modification of data files for
use with the ESP model. This program
displays the data in a series of menus
and allows the user direct access to the
displayed data. After the user has typed
the data into the menus, the program will
make any necessary calculations and
then store the data in a file in the correct
format for reading by the ESP model.
This program will also read existing ESP
model files so that data files may be
corrected, modified, or combined. Data
files written by this program on a
microcomputer may be transferred to a
main-frame computer without changes.
-------
-------
M. G. Faulkner is with Southern Research Institute, Birmingham, AL 35255-5305.
Louis S. Hovis is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "A User-Friendly Data Entry Routine for the ESP
Model," (Order No. PB90-256 785/AS; Cost: $17.00, subject to change) will be
available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
BULK RATE
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
EPA
PERMIT No. G-35
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
EPA/600/S8-90/060
------- |